Chapter 294: Brewing Typhoon (Part 2)

Hitler, who should have been Guderian's "mentor", is now going further and further away from the soul of the German armored forces who said "This is exactly what I need!"

"My order has been issued, and you have clearly heard everything I said just now! If you can't implement the order, then I will change someone, Guderian! I guess you know what kind of answer I want from you, right?"

Faced with Hitler's unmoved stubbornness, Guderian, who was already half cold in his heart, had no choice but to use his right arm to stand at attention and salute to Hitler to show his attitude.

This incident, which lasted for less than a week, was the most serious crisis that broke out since the German army launched Operation Barbarossa. But even though things have developed to the point where they should have come to an end, more serious crises and their bad consequences have followed one after another.

Time turned to the afternoon of September 5th. Hitler, who had just woken up from a nap, suddenly changed his mind as if he was inspired and awakened in a dream. He decided to suspend the fighting on the north and south fronts and resume the offensive in the direction of Moscow. He immediately ordered to summon almost all the senior German military leaders in Berlin, including Air Force Commander Goering, Brauchitsch and Halder.

"Bock and his Central Army Group must start action immediately within eight to ten days! Regroup a powerful fist at lightning speed and resume the offensive in the direction of Moscow!"

"We must surround them, defeat them, and crush them completely! The dirty Bolsheviks and Stalin, the evil dictator, will be permanently erased from history. This is an order that has been decided! No one is allowed to question it!"

After hearing Hitler's gnashing order, the bloated Marshal Goering, who was full of French perfume, just waved his hands expressionlessly to indicate that he had no opinion and could dispatch air force troops to support any strategic plan changes of the German Army at any time.

Brauchitsch and Halder, feeling relieved, breathed a sigh of relief. At the beginning of September, it was not too late for them.

Hitler changed his mind faster than a Sichuan opera face-changing, and made a series of strategic changes. He agreed to Guderian's proposal, which he had rejected verbally before, and ordered Guderian's 2nd Panzer Group to be transferred back to the Central Army Group from the Ukrainian Theater in the south to participate in the upcoming Moscow Operation Offensive.

After thinking for a while and feeling that Guderian alone might not be enough, Hitler added another order, requiring the tank army commanded by Reinhardt to be transferred from the Northern Army Group of Field Marshal Loeb on the Leningrad front back to the Central Army Group to strengthen the armored force, intending to reproduce the German army's powerful armored blitzkrieg offensive as always to capture Moscow, the heart of the Soviet Union, in one fell swoop.

At the end of the meeting, Hitler expressed his high expectations for the attack on Moscow and personally named it "Operation Typhoon", meaning to sweep the Soviets like an unstoppable typhoon, to fight a final annihilation battle on the front line of Moscow, to completely wipe out the most elite forces of the Red Army used by Stalin to defend Moscow, and to completely defeat the last resistance of the Soviet Union.

The Typhoon Plan, which was rapidly condensed under Hitler's personal supervision, finally gathered an extremely powerful offensive energy.

The German Army Group Center, after specialization and reinforcement, has a total of 75 fully equipped combat divisions, 1.8 million people, more than 1,700 tanks and various types of self-propelled artillery, more than 40,000 various types of large-caliber artillery and light mortars.

Marshal Goering, the commander of the German Air Force, who received orders from Hitler, also mobilized a total of 1,400 aircraft of various types to the Central Army Group, and Kesselring, the commander of the Second Air Force, carried out unified deployment and command on the front line.

After this reinforcement, the powerful German Army Group Center was more than half as strong as it was at the beginning of the war. Three of the four armored groups deployed on the Soviet battlefield were put into the Typhoon plan to launch an attack. Hitler's determination to win Moscow can be seen from this.

On the other hand, the Soviet troops deployed outside the front line of Moscow were all exhausted troops who had just experienced a failed battle. The Western Front, the Reserve Front, and the Bryansk Front were all the defensive forces used by the Soviet Union to deal with the German attack at this time.

These three incomplete fronts had a total of 95 understaffed combat divisions, a total of 1.25 million troops, 990 tanks and other combat vehicles of various types, 7,600 light and heavy artillery, and only 677 extremely important fighter planes used to fight for air supremacy and support ground combat. Not only was the number less than half of the German army, but the quality was far inferior.

Facing such a severe frontline situation, Stalin, who realized that Hitler was about to launch a general attack on Moscow, once again thought of the invincible name representing victory, and immediately sent a telegram from Moscow to the distant Leningrad Front Command.

"Leave your work as the commander of the Leningrad Front and other matters to Chief of Staff Khotin, and you will fly back to Moscow immediately."

Zhukov, who received Stalin's order, did not dare to neglect it, and immediately took a plane back to the Moscow base camp. What exactly did the large-scale southward movement of the German armored group that had been detected by the Soviet reconnaissance aircraft in the direction of Leningrad mean? For Zhukov, the veteran Red Army god of war, it was very clear.

When Zhukov arrived at the Kremlin in the evening of October 7, he was exhausted as soon as he got off the plane. Stalin, who was sitting alone in his office and staring at the map on the wall in a daze, was obviously not in good health.

Comrade Stalin, who was a little exhausted by the flu, nodded when he saw Zhukov coming, and then spoke softly with a hoarse voice, pointing to the location on the map.

"Look here, Zhukov. The situation on the Moscow front is very bad now. I can't get a detailed report on the real situation from the Western Front. Many troops have been dispersed by German tanks, and now they can't be contacted at all."

"I need you to go to the Western Front headquarters immediately to find out the situation. When you get there, don't use telegrams. Keep in touch with me by phone at any time. Remember to report the most real situation of the Western Front to me."

After withdrawing his index finger from the map, Stalin paused with a gloomy face. Because of the overall decline and defeat on the front line, he still couldn't judge the real strategic intentions of the Germans. He immediately asked Zhukov with some uncertainty.